Canned Responses — Setup and Best Practices

Canned responses are pre-written message shortcuts your agents can insert in one click during any conversation. They eliminate repetitive typing, reduce response time, and keep messaging consistent across your team.

Creating a canned response #

1. Go to Settings → Canned Responses
2. Click New Canned Response
3. Fill in:
   • Name — A short label used to search for this response (e.g. order-delay, refund-policy)
   • Content — The full message text, including any formatting
4. Click Save

Using a canned response in a conversation #

1. Open any conversation in the Inbox
2. Click in the message composer and type /
3. A picker appears — type part of the canned response name to filter
4. Click the response you want — it is inserted into the composer
5. Edit if needed, then send

WhatsApp formatting in canned responses #

The canned response editor supports WhatsApp’s native text formatting:

• *bold* → bold
• _italic_ → italic
• ~strikethrough~ → strikethrough
• ```monospace``` → monospace

Using canned responses alongside Flows #

A common pattern is to use a canned response to introduce a Flow before sending the template. For example:

“Hi {{customer_name}}! To book your appointment, I’ll need a few details. Tap the button below and it’ll take less than 30 seconds. 👇”

Send this as a canned response (or personalised text), then immediately follow with the Flow template. This warms up the customer and increases Flow completion rates.

Another pattern: use a canned response as a post-Flow confirmation after the Flow data arrives. For example, once the webhook delivers the booking details, an agent sends:

“Great, we’ve got your booking for {{service}} on {{date}}. You’ll receive a reminder 24 hours before. See you then! 🎉”

In automations, this post-Flow message can be sent by Journey Builder automatically using the Flow’s submitted data as variables.

Best practices #

• Use consistent naming conventions — prefix by topic (e.g. order-, refund-, flow-) so agents can find responses quickly
• Keep them short — canned responses work best for 1–4 line messages; long responses are better handled by templates
• Review quarterly — product names, prices, and policies change; stale canned responses erode trust
• Don’t create too many — more than 30–40 responses becomes hard to navigate; merge duplicates regularly
• Use personalisation tokens — Baat supports {{contact.name}} and similar tokens inside canned responses; they are replaced at send time

Editing and deleting #

Go to Settings → Canned Responses, click the Edit icon next to any response to update it. Changes apply instantly for all agents. Click Delete to remove a response permanently — this cannot be undone.